Texture
Still Life
Contour
Warm colors/Cool colors
Horizon Line
Shadow/highlight

Motivation:

Students will have an opportunity to bring in their own fuzzy stuffed animals. The teacher should have a few on hand too. Students may also share animals during the project if they forgot theirs. Start by talking about the fur they see and comparing the animals. Is there an animal with longer fur? Shorter? Curly? How would you show that on your paper? Are there some places that there is no fur? How would you draw that differently?

Before or after the art making look at examples of animals in art. Browse Artcyclopedia (search keyword Animals - and various individual animals) for images of animals in art. Make a PowerPoint. Discuss how artists show highlight and shadow. Some very good examples of lions can be found as well as horses. Shorewood and Art Image Publications have prints of animals in art for you to display. You might also want to talk about subjective color - introduce Franz Marc - and let students be creative with color - still showing highlight and shadow.

Procedures:

Talk to students about sitting the stuffed animal in the position that they are going to draw it. They are creating a still life. Once they start drawing they will not want anyone to move the animal because that will change the drawing.

Have them sketch the animal in a light colored chalk. If they make a mistake they can easily erase. When they sketch they should be looking at the contours or the shapes of the animal- not the texture.

After sketching in chalk they will begin filling in the animal with little lines showing the fur. (What does texture sound like? Tell students that you should hear tapping as they work)

When demonstrating coloring the animals, begin talking to students about mixing colors. If the main color of the animal is brown and they don’t use other colors as they fill in the fur, their animals will become big blobs. Tell them to imagine light hitting the animal, because the animals are not flat there will be a light side and a dark side to everything. Use warm colors mixed in with the main color on the side that the light hits. Use cool colors on the shaded side.

Make sure on parts that are not furry (eyes, nose, shadow underneath animal) texture lines are not used. Instead, those areas are colored in smooth.

Students can create a table line. Then put a shadow under their animal, coloring solidly the table and background with warm and cool colors.

Class Critique.

Evaluation:

Did students use observational drawing skills in drawing the stuffed animals?